Author Robert Greene’s biggest book is The Laws of Human Nature, a 2018 investigation into human behaviour and the most effective way to handle the different people in your life. I started reading this 600-page beast in May last year and finished in March. I read a big chunk of it in a week on holiday, the first few chapters in Manchester airport waiting for a delayed flight. I’ve dipped in and out of it since then.
In the above video, Greene summarises the book: people are who they are. There’s no point trying to change them, but you can change how you handle them. Since the book came out, we’ve had a worldwide pandemic and subsequent vaccine rollout, a British change of government, 2 American political switch-ups, the Nova Festival attack and the genocide on Gaza. There have been a range of reasons for people to argue and, in some cases, fall out and never speak again. It’s been a frustrating few years, but again… people are who they are.
It’s fitting that just as the book came out, the challenge of understanding human nature – people’s emotions, their pride and ego – became a steeper hill to climb.
There’s an interesting passage on causes and cults: people banding together for one purpose or another. As I was reading it, I realised its descriptions were eerily similar to something I’d already experienced. In cults, people begin to act the same way as each other, then almost rub each other up the wrong way by being so similar. Alternately, people who are too different then try to fit a figurative square peg into a round hole by forming unworkable friendships through this group setting. This was exactly what I’d seen in certain men’s support groups in Greater Manchester – lonely, isolated people across the full spectrum of life, different backgrounds, incomes, IQs, EQs, all trying to connect, largely failing, but then allowing that environment of the men’s talking sessions to take over their whole lives and having very few meaningful interactions with anyone outside of the group.
The book is full of valid advice, but there are some brow-furrowing moments. I don’t think Greene understands depression entirely, and this is surprising considering he’s had a stroke from which he recovered. I expect that would have impacted on his mental health. He also compares fictional biblical dreamer Joseph to historical philosopher Socrates. Separately, there’s a grammar error on p159.
As much as Greene’s books are well-written, there’s an over-arching criticism to be made about all of them: he’s a researcher by trade. An author. He’s been in publishing since his 20s. He’s not a psychologist or sociologist. Nor has he credited anyone who is, who would have lent some authority to the text.
Human nature is such a broad subject and the book is so lengthy that despite my interest in the subject I’m left wondering, what exactly was the intention of the book?
